News & Publications Results

A recent decision from the Alberta Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (the “Alberta Privacy Commissioner”) highlights the importance of responding to all privacy complaints and cooperating, to the extent possible, with the Information and Privacy Commissioner during investigations.

FortisBC is the dominant natural gas service provider in British Columbia, serving nearly a million customers in over 125 communities in the province. It is a public utility regulated by the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC), under the Utilities Commission Act (UCA).

On December 18, 2013, the Alberta Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered an employer to provide training to its staff on appropriate management of personal information in response to the employer viewing a former employee’s personal email account in breach of Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (“Alberta PIPA”).

On December 13, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in IBM Canada Limited v. Waterman, 2013 SCC 70. The decision clarifies that pension benefits paid to an employee during a reasonable notice period should not be deducted from damages for wrongful dismissal.

Three Lawson Lundell Partners, Rita Andreone, QC, John Smith, and Michael Lee participated as leading legal practitioners in the recent study "A Canadian Model of Corporate Governance: Insights from Canada's Leading Legal Practitioners."

The Supreme Court of Canada today issued its much anticipated decision in Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v.United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401, 2013 SCC 62, a decision which addresses the balancing of privacy rights with the rights of freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Congratulations to Kinji Bourchier on being named as one of Canada’s leading lawyers under 40 by the Lexpert Rising Star Awards 2013. Kinji’s primary practice areas include complex commercial and civil litigation with a focus on contractual disputes, environmental remediation claims, shareholder and transactional disputes, and business torts.

On June 12, 2013, the Canadian government announced its intention to introduce new legislation requiring the disclosure of payments made by Canadian extractive resource companies to domestic and foreign governments.

In a highly-anticipated and extremely significant pair of decisions for businesses and consumers alike, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) ruled on Thursday (October 31, 2013) that the ultimate consumers at the end of a supply chain can effectively leap-frog the supply chain by having direct legal recourse in a class action against a manufacturer who illegally overcharged for the product supplied.

The Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act was passed by the federal government in 2012, which includes changes that will affect long-term disability (“LTD”) plans provided by federally-regulated employers. This will impact employers in the banking, marine, transportation, telecommunication and other federally regulated industries.

Deborah Cushing's article, "What you need to know about changes to Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker program", discusses recent changes to the rules of the temporary foreign worker program for employers in Canada.

This paper discusses contract law issues including decisions of relevance to commercial lawyers and business leaders giving a snapshot of particular principles of interest that arose in case law over the past 12 months.

Over the last 15 years, governments around the world have indicated their willingness to implement laws prohibiting the bribery of foreign public officials in connection with attempting to secure a business advantage. While Canada has had anti-corruption legislation in place since 1998 in the form of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (Canada) (the “CFPOA”), it has been limited in scope and minimally enforced by Canadian authorities.

On September 26, 2013 the Supreme Court released its decision in the Envisioncase. The case deals with the amalgamation of two credit unions, but has broader implications for the tax treatment of amalgamations in Canada, and will be of interest to Canadian corporations contemplating a merger in the future.

The Supreme Court of Canada recently reiterated that restrictive covenants that arise in the context of the sale of a business will be treated differently and more generously than those that arise in the context of a contract of employment. While the case arose under the Civil law of Quebec, it clearly has implications for the common law regimes in the rest of Canada.